


Fire, Glass, and a Fox of Misfortune

by rollcake



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Coffee, Fainting, Graphic Description, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Injuries - Burns, possibly bad medicine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 04:21:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13356384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rollcake/pseuds/rollcake
Summary: Yusuke's fire weakness doesn't only exist in the Metaverse.





	Fire, Glass, and a Fox of Misfortune

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EvilMuffins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMuffins/gifts).



> Written for the Persona 5 Secret Santa at [p5exchange](https://p5exchange.tumblr.com) on Tumblr

After losing track of the time and not having enough change to catch a train back to the dorms, Yusuke found his feet taking him through the backstreets of Yongen-Jaya where he literally walked into LeBlanc a few minutes after closing. Not noticing the flipped sign on the door, he attempted to enter anyway. Like a bird trying to fly through a window, he walked into the establishment with a thud, causing the glass on the door to clatter and the bell on the other side to ring.

Akira, who was still at the downstairs cleaning up, came around to the door, ushering Yusuke inside with a greeting that was both chiding and amused.

"It's a good thing you're not a real thief," Akira said, moving around behind the bar, "or the police would have caught you a long time ago."

Yusuke took a seat at the far end of the counter near the television. He watched as Akira prepped one of the siphons, turning on the burner and filling the base with water. "I wasn't trying to break in," Yusuke explained, earnestly. "I merely sought entry. It seems to have worked out for me in the end."

"I guess." Akira shrugged, smiling a smile that could have held a hundred meanings. He moved down the counter to grind up some beans, leaving Yusuke to watch the water slowly come to a boil. 

Bubbles started to form on the bottom of the glass, and then, a few moment's later, they travelled violently upward in a rolling stream. It reminded him of something he'd seen in a nature documentary--deep vents at the bottom of the ocean.

"How fascinating," Yusuke said to himself, as he watched, transfixed, as the liquid moved upward, gradually filling the upper chamber.

Without thinking, he touched his finger to the glass and retracted it with a start.

"Ouch. That was foolish of me."

Akira frowned as he came back with the coffee beans, wondering why Yusuke staring intently at his finger. "Did you touch the glass?" he asked, and one look at Yusuke's expression told him all he needed to know. He sighed, and said, fondly, "I can't leave you alone for a second, can I?"

"Like a moth to a flame," Yusuke said. "I could not help myself."

"Yeah, well..." There was a hint of laughter in Akira's voice. "Don't go touching the flame either."

"I'll try to resist the temptation."

Yusuke stepped down from his seat and to run his finger under the tap. For such a minor affliction, it sure hurt terribly. The pain seemed to radiate from deep within his flesh, searing through the layers of his skin. He recalled all those times he got burned in the Metaverse and somehow they were never so intense.

But this, too, was a part of life and he welcomed the experience wholeheartedly for one could not truly say they have lived a full life without knowing pain or joy without knowing suffering.

Suddenly, he started to feel very faint, like when he stood up too quickly after skipping one too many meals. In a process that was too used to, he steadied himself against the basin and bowed his head, closed his eyes and waited for the feeling to pass.

When he opened his eyes, black spots danced before him, like paint splatter on a pane of glass. Specks like stars phased in and out on the edges of his vision.

 _Huh,_ Yusuke thought. _This is different._

It usually only took a few seconds for the lightheaded feeling to go away, but no matter how much he blinked or how long he waited, his vision would not clear.

He was starting to worry that in neglecting his health, he had done lasting damage to his body, that this change in his vision was permanent and he was rapidly going blind. What would become of him as an artist? he wondered.

"Yusuke?" Akira's voice called out from behind him, his tone too cautious--too serious--for someone who laughed at danger on a daily basis. "Are you all right?"

"I--I don't know..." Yusuke replied, trying to remain calm, but his heart was beating fast, and whether it was a symptom of his own anxieties or a symptom of...whatever it was that was happening to him, he did not know.

Suddenly, a wave of nausea came over him, followed by a chill that rapidly spread out from the base of his neck, spilling over his shoulders and down to his arms and chest. Deeper, under skin and beneath bone, in his skull and in his breast, he felt his body drain of warmth as if it were being sucked out of him into a void.

He was shivering now, and clutched his arms to himself to keep himself warm, to hold himself together, but nothing helped.

"I fear I've taken ill," Yusuke said, shakily. "My vision--" He slowly dropped to his knees, partly because he was still aware enough to do so, and partly because he could feel his his legs finally giving out.

 _I'll just rest against the counter,_ he thought, _and it will pass._ He leaned back, miscalculating the distance between him and the counter, and wound up splayed out on the floor.

"Yusuke...!"

The last thing he remembers is thinking, _What a shameful display._

 

Yusuke blinked through a waning darkness, registering sounds and sensations before his vision caught up with them. There was cold tile against his back and a voice overhead. He knew he was in LeBlanc, or at least, that's where he remembered being last, but his mind struggled to connect this knowledge to the visuals before him. There was a light--a bright light, hanging from the ceiling. Were LeBlanc's lights always this bright? He never paid them much attention.

"...Wait, I think he's coming to. Yeah, hang on."

A looming figure soon came into focus, and Yusuke recognized it as Akira, who brought his face closer, worry clearly etched in his features.

"Hey," Akira said, gently, placing a hand against Yusuke's cheek. "Yusuke, can you hear me?"

"Mm-hm..." Yusuke said, hopefully intelligibly.

"I think you fell," Akira continued. "Are you hurt anywhere? Did you hit your head?"

Yusuke blinked up at Akira and looked down at his hand. "I burned my finger," he said, holding out the injured appendage.

Akira sat back on his heels and sighed, one part exasperation and a thousand parts relief. "He's awake," he said to someone Yusuke couldn't see. "I think he's okay now. But can you still--? Great, thanks."

Yusuke was about to ask Akira who he was talking to before he heard him hang up his phone with a beep.

"Takemi-sensei will be over in a bit," Akira said, finally removing his hand from Yusuke's cheek.

Yusuke keened for the loss of it and sat up, glancing around the room.

He felt much better now, though still a bit shaken. He touched his hand to his forehead, wondering what came over him. It didn't feel like he had a fever, but those chills from earlier...

"How long was I...?" Yusuke trailed off, not wanting to admit to Akira that he had passed out.

"Only a few seconds," Akira said. His gaze was deep as he searched Yusuke's complexion. "Do you want something to eat?"

"I'd rather not chance it," Yusuke said, remembering the nausea that came over him earlier. "But perhaps a glass of water?"

Akira smiled. "Coming right up."

Takemi-sensei arrived at LeBlanc a few minutes later, announcing her arrival with a sharp rap on the door. She had Yusuke move over to sit in one of the booths where began her examination. She checked his pulse and blood pressure, looked into his eyes, had him perform various tests for balance. 

Akira made himself sparse and busied himself in the kitchen, heating up leftover curry just in case Yusuke wanted some later. He tried not to eavesdrop, but he wasn't very successful.

After a few more questions, Takemi seemed satisfied with Yusuke's condition. She packed up her bag and left, reassuring them that he should come visit her if his symptoms get worse.

"Feeling better?" Akira said, placing a curry in front of Yusuke.

Yusuke looked down at a table like a despondent child. "Takemi-sensei said I was mildly dehydrated and went into shock from the burn," he said. "I was given a painkiller, but it has yet to start working." He shifted his gaze to his now-bandaged finger, a deep crease in his brow.

"Does it hurt that much?" Akira asked, sliding into the seat next to him.

Yusuke considered this without looking up. He picked absently at his bandage. "Yes," he said, after a moment. "But I think I'll manage."

Akira reached across the table to get Yusuke to stop fiddling with his wound, taking his uninjured hand in his own and lacing their fingers together tightly.

"Akira?" Yusuke said, hesitantly.

Akira nuzzled his face against the back of Yusuke's hand. "You had me so worried there," he said.

Yusuke looked away, eyes searching for a distraction. "Sorry..."

"Don't be," Akira chided, placing a kiss on the back of his hand.

"I-- Of course." Yusuke corrected himself. "Thank you," he said. "For caring."


End file.
